Graduation Candy Gift--for Canadian Candy

Well have to admit that I didn't take pictures of the bucket that I improvised with Canadian candy that I prepared for Bob's oldest grandson's High School Graduation party we hosted here on July 6th.  Of coarse the original idea was from pinterest....but everything is using U.S. candy bars and we just don't have that kind of selection....so I got my thinking cap on.  Looked back at what I had prepared for a Canadian Birthday Candy Card....and made up my own lines.  Well in the preperation of hosting this party....and doing this two days before the party...along with preparing decoriations for the party..i.e.  Grad pictures taken on the night of graduation...and other stuff that I put out around the house...I didn't take a picture of the final present.  Well happily I found it on Bob's nieces' FB...saved it and here it is (without the cello wrap).....

What you can't see is what is in the bucket....so my process was...with a poem in hand I shopped to find a container to hold the candy's that I had on the poem, so with finding the container first...then walked about Dollarrama along with my imagination to fill it up.  I was looking at everything as in a word form....so when I found a bag of Bugles...I knew that would nicely fill up the bucket I had chosen.  Justin's HS's colours are gold and black....so a black bucket it was.  Here's my saying....

Sound the BUGLES!

Look at you, SMARTIE pants!

No REISEN to listen to SNICKERS

that you are a NERD or an AIR HEAD.

You SKOR'd and Excel'd on your

tests and you've graduated!

You are one HOT TAMALE!...There's

no MIRAGE or TWIX....you are on

your way to make

'LOTS OF $$$'S'

GOOD AND PLENTY wishes sent

your way!!

Most of the candy was 69 cents...the 'Lots of $$'s' was a package of serviettes that are printed with Canadian $$'s.  When Justin rec'd it....he didn't want to read it out loud to our guests so Bob took over, and since he knew what I was doing...he read it out loud and at each candy....pulled it out of the bucket...it was a hit!  And then of course we had a graduation card with 'real' Canadian $$'s.  I may use this idea again,,,it was way easier than taping all the bars/candy to bristol board.....and the container can be ANYTHING that would fit your poem and the candy  inside it, this was easier than a candy boquet--but not as pretty.....ENJOY!

Kitchen Reno 2013

Not very good pictures....but the one side of our kitchen...with the 'ugly' counter top....the D/W has already been moved from the penninsula to next the sink....next what I used to paint the laminated cupboards!

I'm doing all this while I wait for my paint to dry....first coat....this is wall colour behind fridge and over fridge that I couldn't reach with the fridge in place.  And then I pulled out the cupboard brown so that I could paint the cupboards over fridge....underneath the box of cupboard and on the side....all unaccessable with the fridge in place.  I'll be soooo happy when I can put away our painting supplies....which should be today.  Cause tonight we are getting our gas line installed for the new stove...yeah!!!  And Bob promised to take out the fridge and stove....so we can get all prepared for tomorrow's delivery...this is very exciting on my part.  I haven't had a gas range in over 8 years...and once you love gas...electric doesn't match up to it.OK...away I go back to my DIY and check on Chico :-)

continued.....Kitchen Reno

Well what started as an idea or a wish to have a dishwasher next to the sink....has turned into our little reno for this year.  We've bounced around with our initial idea of not only moving the dishwasher....cause it's over 20 years old, but installing a new dishwasher next to the sink.  The original dishwasher was placed in the corner of the peninsula, which is a 'dead' space in kitchen cupboards....it's the corner of a bank of cupboards.  Most people have a lazy susan shelf....or as my d.i.l. has just a big opening....very hard to reach.  Lots of space, but very inaccessible.  So I can see why the dishwasher was put there....but it was so messy to always load it or access it, as the opening was in the dining area.  So that was a wish from day one....well as I type this we've had a brand new Boesch dishwasher installed in the cupboard next to the sink...part of our reno for this year.  We even went to the point of picking out cupboards, flooring etc....we were going for a full reno....gutting the kitchen and flooring...everything brand new!  So exciting till we realized our investment into changing our home would only be for our enjoyment...we would never re-coup the $'s from these changes.  So a long story short....we would be fools to not stay in this home for a minimum of ten years to re-coup our investment--and we didn't want to 'need' to stay here ten more years....so going back to our original idea.  'just moving the dishwasher'  we changed our minds, and did just that.  But along with moving the D/W we needed a new counter top.  There would be no way of getting around the much dated countertop....so this was the time to do it.  Since our cupboard was being re-vamped or re-built we decided with the help of a carpenter to have a microwave hood fan installed.  Since I was painting our dated cupboards....we went with a stainless steel D/W...so the hood fan would have to be changed.  Stainless steel hood fans are pretty pricey...unless you do a DIY...spray paint a white one...but having the combo microwave/hood fan was the same price as a good quality hood fan, we decided to go that route.  Only if Doug our carpenter could cut down our cupboard over the stove to accomodate a hood fan and still give me lots of 'cooking' space.  So today (Doug's birthday) July 23rd this is what we are working on.

To date we have:

• removed old D/W
• installed new D/W and the small cupboard next to that has been framed in
• had a new laminate counter top installed....and what a difference that made!
• had a new stainless steel sink installed with new taps installed
• the ceramic tiles around the stove came down....along with the drywall
• Bob installed a plug for the hood fan/microwave which has been purchased, delivered and sits in our living room...yuck!
• postponed our delivery date for a new gas range and a new french door fridge BOTH gorgeous stainless steel
• and the reason for this post....painted 80% of the 39 year old ugly outdated laminated cupboards